Running Libranet 2.8.1 (a commercial version of Debian) on a dual boot system. I've been trying to speed up the rather slow performance. Using some of the info in other threads, I have discovered:

Regarding hdparm, using_DMA is turned on.

top tells me that I have 320M of memory available (fits what I know about my physical system, having just installed more mem when I installed Linux), and 245M are used (thats about 75% by my calculation.) But when I add up all the %MEM column, it only adds up to about 17%

ps aux reveals similar discrepancy: adding the % mem column gets me about 50%, not 75%.

The largest percent is Mozilla, consuming about 10%

Where has all my memory gone?

Thanks.

I don't know about the slowness, may just be bloat. Or a bunch of services running. The memory thing's normal. I have 255.8mb of mem, 251.9 is being used, but only 94.9mb are actually active. The active stuff represents programs that are currently running. The rest of it is mostly cached stuff that gets freed up when the system needs it.

It's to speed up applications. For example, you may notice Mozilla takes a while to start the first time, but every time after that, it takes only a fraction of that time. You should only be concerned if your swap is being used in large portions on a regular basis. Typically, I can leave my PC on for over a week and barely touch my swap.